The case for having kids | Wajahat Ali

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4.1 • 11.9K Ratings

🗓️ 9 May 2019

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The global fertility rate, or the number of children per woman, has halved over the last 50 years. What will having fewer babies mean for the future of humanity? In this funny, eye-opening talk, journalist (and self-described exhausted dad) Wajahat Ali examines how the current trend could lead to unexpected problems -- and shares why he believes we need to make it easier for people to have babies. "For those who can and choose to, may you pass on this beautiful thing called life with kindness, generosity, decency and love," he says.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	This TED Talk features writer Wajahat Ali, recorded live at TED 2019.
0:08.8	I'm an exhausted dad, currently owned and dominated by two many dictators who rule my life with an iron fist while wearing their huggy's diapers.
0:21.3	Now, probably because I've been drowning in small people lately,
0:24.5	I've been paying close attention to a particular headline.
0:28.1	It seems around the world in developed countries,
0:30.7	people are having fewer babies.
0:33.4	From North America to Europe to China, to Japan,
0:35.8	there's actually been a consistent decline in birth rates.
0:39.3	In fact, over the past 50 years, the global fertility rate has halved.
0:45.3	What the heck is going on?
0:48.3	Now, my friends who don't want kids,
0:50.3	all point to climate change as a reason for never having babies.
0:56.6	And many of you are sitting there right now saying,
0:58.9	wodge, there's also overpopulation.
1:04.2	There's also high birth rates which still exist in many African and Middle Eastern countries.
1:06.9	There's also orphan kids who still need parents.
1:10.0	There's also a lack of resources to go around for everyone.
1:13.6	And oh, by the way, we have a ginormous carbon footprint that is destroying this planet.
1:15.6	I hear you. I hear you.
1:17.6	And yet, despite all this chaos,
1:20.6	I still think we should have babies.
1:23.6	I believe we can and should fight for the Earth and humanity side by side. Now, if I could take it
	...

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